bush and mccain campaigns, mark mckinnon also joins us. and former chief of staff to congresswoman michele bachmann ron kerry returns to the show. thank you all for joining me tonight. alex, could president obama have had a better debate night? >> you have to think that president obama was sitting just rubbing his hands together saying, keep it going. i mean, it devolved, literally was there a mud pit stage left where they could take out the tax disputes hand to hand combat style? it was, i think, i mean, look, you've seen these candidates graded on a number of different scales in the post hoc analysis and some people are saying, look, perry showed his true colors, he woke up. romney showed some steel. at the end of the day the feeling was ick. >> john, did you get any honest assessments from any progressal republicans about how they thought this went last night? >> yeah, sure, lawrence. >> i don't care about stewart stevens' spin for romney or the different spinners. >> what happened last night, for the first time of the republican debate

joining me now, mark mckinnon, former adviser to bush and mccain campaigns and adviser for nolabels.org. howard fineman, aol director for "huffington post" media group and msnbc analyst. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> hi, lawrence. >> i'm not sure if the world is ready for herman cain, but republican voters seem ready for herman cain. he didn't rocket all the way up to that now seems stratospheric 38% rick perry was at in this poll last time around. this is an amazing move for cain in this poll. >> it is an amazing move for herman cain, and i think it's very possible he could sustain it. he's been in the race, he got in pretty early. he's been pretty disciplined about his campaign. he's run a good campaign. he's a very sunny, optimistic guy. he's very confident. he's very bold. he's very assertive, as you've seen in the debates. he absolutely dominated the debate last night. i tell you, at least a third, maybe half of the debate was spent either talking about him or talking about his plan or he was defending his plan or describing his plan. it was all about herman cain. when

bush and co-founder of no labels, mark mckinnon." jilligill tett is here along with chuck todd breaking down the new polls. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. at adt, we get financing from ge capital. but they also go beyond banking. we installed a ge fleet monitoring system. it tracks every vehicle in their fleet. it cuts fuel use. koch: it enhances customer service. it's pretty amazing when people who loan you money also show you how to save it. not just money, knowledge. it's so much information, it's like i'm right there in every van in the entire fleet. good day overall. yeah, i'm good. come on in. let's go. wow, this is fantastic. ge capital. they're not just bankers. we're builders. they helped build our business. >>> i'm being polite to him. i'm being polite to him. >> a foggy, foggy day. >> giving him a nice kiss out the door, way to go thee row, thank you for the two world series. now leave. is that polite? theo is gone. epstein is the best gm in baseball. >> the smartest young guy in baseball. >> he'll tur

one, our own jimmy williams from the lobbying side and mark mckinnon, co-founder of no labels. gentlemen, it is a delight to welcome you back. i am proud to present to you on behalf of our entire community, after just one week, 100,000. i believe it was 105,000, maybe 106,000 signatures and counting. we are pushing for what we call asymmetrical growth. each person tells another person and we're hoping we can actually watch this number in ten clicks work well into the millions. mark, are you surprised by the immediacy of the response? i feel like a guy who stuck a knife in an oil well and it blew up in my face this past week. >> i'm not surprised, and i'm excited to see it, dylan. people are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore. i weapons of mass destruction "the network" movie with the great hour beal's speech and was struck how it relates today. when citizens united, the supreme court decision came down, it basically said -- the decision basically said that corporations and unions don't have enough power. they don't have enough influence and they don't have e

. >> mark mckinnon, thanks so much. >>> jon huntsman, who will not be at the debate, because he is focusing on trying to get his campaign up and running, he is going to be a guest with andrea mitchell, 1:00 eastern here on msnbc. >>> here are tips to op timmize your small business video content. choose the right place to host it. third party sites like youtube will help maximize total views. keep it less than three minutes and attach a text trance skiscr your videos. it let's search engines get a better content of your video. let's see...south western vegetables...60 calories. ya' know those jeans look nice. they do? yup. so you were checking me out? yup. [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won'

. >> mark mckinnon, thanks for coming on. >> thanks. >> what is the silver lining for president obama in our poll? we'll bring down those results with "washington post" eugene robinson. >> social conserve i haves haven't found what they are looking for among the crowd of candidates, does the perfect candidate even exist? we'll ask tony perkins joining us later in the show. this is "andrea mitchell reports quts only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] for sore muscles use new bengay cold therapy, it's pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a $3 coupon. clorox disinfecting wipes and...a digital recorder. i'm finally feeling better. good honey, you turn into such a little whiner when you're sick. no i don't. [ bawk! ] honey, i'm sick. i can't reach the remote. that sounds nothing like me. [ beep ] honey, i'm sick. i can't reach the remote. that kind of does. [ male announcer ] get low prices

. >> mark mckinnon is a former gop strategist who work for former president bush and senator john mccaindo you think he's kidding himself. do you think he needs a campaign reset? >> i think he is resetting, starting with the jobs plan. in any campaign there are physics and peaks and valleys. the key is not to panic and understand there's going to be those ebbs and flows and keep focused your strategy. i remember when the bush can kam pain, we lost new hampshire by 19 points and everybody thought it was over. we had a reset much like perry is doing and we were able to come back. this doesn't start till iowa and that's when the race really begins. and perry has got a shot out there. he's got $17 million in the bank. he's raised more than mitt romney. "wall street journal" poll yesterday had interesting number. the most conservative voters in the poll and the most likely to show up actually support perry over romney. so this race sblts over yet. everybody keeps trying to say it's done and romney's running away with it. he's certainly in a good position but persony's got money and he has a c

thank you, jennifer donohue and thank you, mark mckinnon. he's got to win the argument. my heart next year, my model next year is going to be so good, let me show it to you, and convince us what he's saying about the next four years is so compelling, so winning, saying, okay, we know we got a bad model this year, but we'll get a good one next year. i'm just looking at it. he's got to make the case to win this campaign. it's up to him to do it. he can do it, but what a challenge. >>> up next, steve jobs proved you don't need a fancy degree from a fancy university to make it in this country. you need a good idea and a lot of hard work. and guts and believe in yourself. are we still a country that create a person like steve jobs? do we still have that garage out there where some people working in it that can make something magical happen? this is "hardball," only on msnbc. >>> well, here's some good news. congresswoman gabrielle giffords was at the white house today, nine months after being critically injured in an assassination attempt. giffords was on hand for the militar

thank you, jennifer donohue and thank you, mark mckinnon. he's got to win the argument. model next year is going to be so good, let me show it to you, and convince us what he's saying about the next four years is so compelling, so winning, saying, okay, we know we got a bad model this year, but we'll get a good one next year. he's got to make the case to win this campaign. it's up to him to do it. what a challenge. >>> up next, steve jobs proved you don't need a fancy degree from a fancy university to make it in this country. you need a good idea and a lot of hard work. do we still have that garage out there where some people working in it that can make something magical happen? this is "hardball," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male ann

. >> yeah, i love mark mckinnon's quote "love the one you're with, dream dating is over.", there's still that thing. mitch daniels was on a radio show yesterday and apparently, he's been called nonstop to get back in. but i think the field is set. and you're going to see a lot of movement of donors and a lot of movement in the polls in the coming weeks. >> right. it is going to be interesting and, of course, we didn't touch on one of the most amazing stories and that's herman cain. in a dead heat or solid second in the last two weeks and 2 1/2 weeks ago, he was in the single digits. that's yet to be examined. >> i agree. and i think every debate has been such a huge event that each one will take on more significance especially for herman cain trying to show people that you get a lot of substance beyond just 999. >> interestingly enough, speaking deaf batbates, it was years ago, when the fox newschannel went on this air, this program, the lead story was the clinton-dole debate. that was the big story 15 years ago today. >> isn't that amazing? >> it is. >> thank you so much,

then there's this statistic pointed out by cofounder of the no labels organization mark mckinnon in his recent daily beast article. the average consumer confidence index when a president is running for re-election wins is 95. when they lose it's 76. and today right now that number is 55. >> jeffrey sachs? >> a lot of bad numbers. >> you're an economist. a lot of bad numbers. there is one i want to key in on. the question, has the president made the economy better or worse? and we saw very high numbers saying that there's really been no difference. i think if you're an obama supporter, you would say along with bush he helped push through t.a.r.p. he had the bailout for detroit that saved tens of thousands of jobs and general motors. there is a compelling case to be made if you are a democrat. and yet you've been skeptical from the very beginning, from the very beginning that this president was doing what needed to be done to revive the economy. >> and i have to say i really cringe when i hear the president describe himself as the underdog that way. i just don't want to hear a president t